


don't look down (keep on climbing higher)

by Chill_with_Penguins



Series: heroes shine in different ways [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Appreciation Rant, Azula is a BAMF, Bechdel Test, Gen, Gray Morality, Strong Female Characters, which i posted
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-27
Updated: 2019-05-27
Packaged: 2020-03-20 14:07:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18994141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chill_with_Penguins/pseuds/Chill_with_Penguins
Summary: Azula schemes and sneaks and waits, strikes when it's best for her. She is not loyal to people, no--people are fallible, and she'll toss them just as soon as she'll keep them. But she is in love with her ideals, with her vision, with her country; to those things, she is loyal to her last painful breath.~~~Azula is powerful in more ways than most people ever gave her credit for.(A brief discussion of the Crown Princess of the Fire Nation, and all her pieces.)





	don't look down (keep on climbing higher)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [overemotional: in defense of cho chang](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1854957) by [dirgewithoutmusic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dirgewithoutmusic/pseuds/dirgewithoutmusic). 



> Hello internet, we meet once again. 
> 
> Okay, quick notes: first of all, this style of writing was inspired by dirgewithoutmusic's series "we must united inside her walls or we'll crumble from within". It's badass and beautiful and I've read it like 50 times and cried every one, so you should all go check it out.
> 
> Second, the title comes from Dove Cameron's song Born Ready. I have a few ATLA projects in the air right now, all with titles that are lines from that song, because I'm a little in love and a lot crazy. 
> 
> Third.... Actually, I don't think I have a third. Just enjoy the piece and tell me what you think--do you agree? Do you disagree? What did I forget about Azula that you love?
> 
> (Does anyone else want to see what would happen with Azula/Jet?)

An admission, by me and for me: I have a love-hate affair with Azula.

I hate her, because how could I not? How could anyone look at her, at what she's done, and not hate her? She is porcelain and fine china, broken bodies and weeping little girls. She was a prodigy child, a rising heir, a twisted psychopath. She shot lightning at her family, at a little boy who just wanted peace; she taunted her brother and laughed when her mother disappeared like little more than a phantom.

But. But I love her, too, because how could I not? She is the girl who calls herself monster, who feels unlovable and gives a feral grin rather than falling to pieces. She is a girl who knows what she wants, who crosses countries and topples kingdoms, who twists and turns her words until the people around her break into tiny pieces at her feet. This is a girl who was born knowing power. This is a girl who does not become complacent with what she has, who has goals and ambition and the willpower to  _make it so_.

Azula was a child prodigy, but that does not mean she did not train that innate power. No child, prodigy or not, is  _born_  knowing how to channel lightning; no princess, no matter how sociopathic, can confidently twist generals to kneel at her feet without any effort up front.

Azula schemes and sneaks and waits, strikes when it's best for her. She is not loyal to people, no--people are fallible, and she'll toss them just as soon as she'll keep them. But she is in love with her ideals, with her vision, with her country; to those things, she is loyal to her last painful breath.

She is a powerful character, and for that alone, she has earned my respect. She is a powerful female character, a princess who fights on the front lines, a child-general who succeeds where hundreds of others had failed; she is innovative and independent and driven, and for this, she earns my love.

# -

Can we talk about the fact that for a moment in time, Azula flew?

They told us it was only Airbenders who could do that, twist the elements to their advantage and soar through the skies without any support. Even then, it was only Zaheer who we really saw achieve it--it was a monumental feat, something that marked him as strong and dangerous, something that made him stand out.

And yet: for a moment, Azula flew. Do you remember it? She hovered next to the Western Air Temple, nothing under her feet but her own flame. Later, Ozai uses the same trick, zooming between massive stone columns while his red-hot blasts nearly singed Aang's small frame.

But for a moment, Azula was the first--the only--one we'd seen achieve flight with nothing but her bending and her will.

There is an important lesson in here, somewhere. Something about girls, halfway broken, and the things they can push themselves to achieve.

# -

If Ursa had loved Azula instead of Zuko, would it all be different? Would she be the one scarred and fleeing into exile, the one hiding in small earth kingdom towns, the one wincing as she donned her robes, about to march out in front of cheering crowds of veterans?

Or is she too different from Zuko to begin with? Maybe Ursa's love would've softened her regard for other people but not her wit or her skill; maybe she would've pushed herself just as hard and loved twice as fiercely. Maybe she would've learned what it meant to grab the people you cared for and hold them to you, to care without needing to control.

Here's what I like to imagine: Ursa still would've left, but it was Azula, not Zuko, who woke mourning to a still house and a missing queen. She would've taken this lesson and carved it into her heart, pushed herself even further in every training and collapsed, exhausted, with Mai and Ty Lee every night. She would've left, eventually--would've heard all the rumors converging about sightings of an Airbender, and listened to the men in the war council laugh at the thought of sending fresh troops onto the frontlines, and thought  _enough_.

I like to imagine she would've left, would've listened and tracked and followed, Mai and Ty Lee more than just shadows at her side. She would've found them pretty early on, would've walked up and told them the truth--that she was the fugitive Crown Princess Azula, that she didn't care much about the world but that she cared deeply, desperately, for all of her people being slaughtered in this war gone too long. I think she would've offered to train him, in exchange for future amnesty and aid for the recovering Fire Nation.

I think, with Azula and Mai and Ty Lee on their side from the start, they would've won on the day of Black Sun. I think she could've been  _good_.

# -

Azula never had a love interest. This may not seem important, but it is: Azula never had a love interest.

Oh, sure, she had half an episode's infatuation with Chan, but there was no arc, no uplifting moment, no triumphant kiss at the end of a battle. The thing with Chan was a girl chasing affection, and she admits as much.

Perhaps it's Azula's age that kept her from romantic escapades, except for the fact that Aang was even younger and had those things. Mai had a long-lasting love, and Ty Lee a series of flirtatious encounters, but never Azula.

It's possible the writers were just sticking with her "unlovable" characteristic, but I hope that isn't it. I hope they considered it--girl or boy or both or neither--and decided she didn't need it, because when it's all said and done, she  _doesn't_.

Romantic subplots are included to show time passing, to show growth and change and to make the audience become more invested in the characters.

Azula does not need these things. We see her grow and change; over the course of a little less than a season we watch her crumble from the girl who took Ba Sing Se to a cackling madwoman, hurling waves of flame across the courtyard like they're nothing. Azula becomes a girl unraveling, a girl we can't help but watch as she dances across the screen, cunning and cruelty grasped in her palms. She is a storm unto herself and she does not need some boy to hold her hand. She makes her choices and breaks under the weight of them; she goes for the kill and dodges near kill-shots without a partner standing to the side, waiting to save her.

There is no one to save her from the world. There is no one to save her from herself. There is just her, from careful control to disaster to the first slow steps of recovery we get to see in the comics.

This, among all others, is one of the things about Avatar I am most grateful for. I wish more people would show such a thing; perhaps then the world would not hold its breath in shock when women piece themselves back together without needing anyone to curl around them at night.


End file.
